Would adding a customs union to the Brexit deal really be so bad?

It has been nearly a month since cross-party talks between the government and Labour began, and there is still no sign of white smoke. If the two sides do reach a deal, it is likely to involve movement from the government towards Labour’s key demand – negotiating a ‘permanent’ customs union with the EU after Brexit. Both the Telegraph and the Mail report this morning that the Prime Minister is inching towards a customs union, which she increasingly sees as the only way to get a version of her deal through parliament.

There has already been a pre-emptive backlash against the idea. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned that ‘there is a risk that you would lose more Conservative MPs than you would gain Labour MPs.’ He may have a point – Maria Caulfield, a Tory MP who voted against the deal the first time, but for it on the second and third occasions, tweeted yesterday, ‘I will not be voting for a customs union… A customs union is not leaving the EU.’